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MCC Daily Tribune

Announcing TCC's Theme for 2017-18

Last year, the Teaching and Creativity Center's theme was Cultivating a Growth Mindset, during which we learned about the brain's remarkable capacities for growth and we reflected upon how we might apply such insights to our own teaching and working with students. At the heart of growth mindset theory is a recognition of change.

This year, the TCC will pick up on the topic of change, and explore the sometimes rocky, frequently jolting terrain of change in higher education. Our theme is intentionally broad, so that we can explore a wide range of topics: Navigating Changing Environments.

When earthquakes and hurricanes hit, the ground beneath our feet physically alters. When humans are physically uprooted from a place they have known all or most of their lives, and forced to seek refuge in another, they take much with them, even if what they carry physically is restricted to a sack or whatever can fit into pockets. Sometimes the internal landscapes of our relationships, our health, our emotional well-being are tossed in sudden tumult, without warning and without much outward signs. As Joan Didion wrote in the immediate aftermath of her husband's death, "Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant" (from A Year of Magical Thinking). Don't we know it.

We know institutional change, too. Every year, publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education publish reports on the trends likely to dominate the academic year's conversations, policies, and even controversies across the nation's campuses. 2017 is proving to be an already-volatile year, and external events do affect our classrooms, our professional relationships, even our ability to protect the most vulnerable populations. External changes impact us all. We are no strangers to internal changes too--within the past two years alone, we at MCC have redesigned curriculum; overhauled the General Education program; reshaped the college experience for students with Schools and Pathways; said goodbye to long-serving colleagues in nearly every department and office; said hello to new hires or re-located colleagues; literally packed books and beakers and other items and moved into a new Downtown Campus; and more. We can and do champion positive and necessary change within our fields, our professions, and our workplaces--but let's be mindful that it's not always easy.

It is in this light that the TCC offers programming on various topics relating to such changes, those that are external, internal, and personal. Please join us this year for a series of Conversations on the Brighton campus; the Fall Forum at the Downtown Campus, and the 2018 June Teaching & Learning Conference (details for which will be announced at a later date).

Brighton Campus (all events are at 12:00 PM in 12-201)

Fall 2017

  • Monday, Sept. 18: Separating Fact from Fiction: How to deal with fake news/false information
  • Monday, Oct. 16: Freedom of Speech and Diversity on College Campuses
  • Monday, Nov. 13: Facing Questions about the "Value" and Function of a College Education

Spring 2018

  • Monday, Feb. 5: Changing Times in Online Learning
  • Monday, Mar. 19: Working with Students with Disabilities
  • Mon., Apr. 30: When Things Fall Apart: Trauma and Other Challenges in Students' Lives

Downtown Campus

Fall 2017

  • Fri., Oct. 13, 8:30 AM-Noon: Fall Forum [Location: High Falls A & B] Flyer attached.

See the Trib and check the calendar for separate announcements for all programming.

For questions, please contact your TCC Faculty Chairs

Attached Files:
2017 Fall Forum.pdf
fall2017_TCC_Conversations (1).pdf

Amy Burtner
Teaching and Creativity Center
09/13/2017